A University of Malta research project was recently ranked first from over one thousand EU research proposals from all disciplines in the Marie Curie strand of the EU’s FP7 programme. The AutoGameDesign project, directed by Prof. Georgios N. Yannakakis of the Institute of Digital Games, aims to investigate how machines can automatically design complete playable games that are novel and surprising to humans. The project will also investigate the relationship between human and computational creativity, placing Malta in a prominent position on the world map of research into computational creativity.

This project is not the only success of the Institute of Digital Games, which has secured around one million in funds for the development of game research in Malta over the last year.

The institute is currently involved in four EU funded projects in the areas of game artificial intelligence and game design, participating as a partner in two ICT projects (C2Learn, iLearnRW) and leading two Marie Curie projects (AutoGameDesign, Reflect) around the areas of game artificial intelligence and game design. The projects investigate different uses for artificial intelligence technology in the design of games that foster the creativity of students (C2Learn) and assist students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia (iLearnRW). Games developed from these projects are planned to be tested in Maltese classrooms across the country during 2015 and are expected to have an immediate impact on current pedagogical approaches with respect to both creativity and dyslexia.

Prof. Yannakakis stated, 'it has been the ideal start for my team and the institute; securing those research funds allowed us to hire internationally renowned people in the areas of game artificial intelligence and game design and boost the impact of the institute’s research internationally. The benefits of this effort are already visible as both the games we develop and the algorithms we introduce have been receiving several awards in top-notch conferences/competitions in the area.'